Shadows
by Thessily Thessilonikki
Summary: An explosion throws the final Fantasy heroes (?) together in an unknown universe. Now they're forced to work with each other and their greatest enemies to get back home.
1. Of Enemies

****

Foreword & Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns Final Fantasy. All of them. All the characters and places and what have you are not mine. I am merely an avid player of video games, who was struck with the fancy to write. Possible spoilers. I just wanted to be able to play with the characters. Tidus and Squall begged me to make them a couple. Seriously. Later though. Oh yeah, and um, pretend that Aeris never died, in FFVII, okay? I loved her, and well, my fic, she's alive. Enjoy.

Shadows

1. Of Enemies

The explosion was a mass of heat and white light, and pain.

And there was no more.

~`~

When Squall woke, he was lying on his side on a stone floor. His head throbbed as he rolled to his stomach and lifted his head from the ground. Blood matted brown locks together as he reached up to push them from his face. His jacket was missing and his shirt and pants singed and torn, but his body was otherwise unharmed. Except for the trickle of blood that trailed down the side of his face from his scalp.

"I wondered if you would wake up."

Squall looked up sharply at the familiar voice, and into a pair of familiar green eyes. Of all the people… he groaned.

"Look, I don't want to be here with you any more than you want to be here with me, so I suggest you get your ass up off the ground and help me get this rock off my leg so we can get out of here," Seifer snapped.

"Where are we?" Squall asked. He wasn't really sure he could get up. He started checking for cure spells.

"How the hell should I know? I've been pinned against this wall for Hyne knows how long!" Seifer cried.

Squall pushed himself into a sitting position and cast the spell. The cave was lit brightly with green light momentarily and the cut on Squall's scalp healed. He crawled over to Seifer.

"Help me push," he said. Seifer nodded in the dark and braced himself, putting his hands against the rock. He and Squall pushed.

As the rock moved, Seifer let out a scream of agony. Squall realized that a rock that size had to have crushed the blond man's leg when it had fallen. But he didn't have another cure spell.

"Do you have any more?" Seifer moaned. Squall felt horrible when he had to shake his head. He'd definitely been in better shape than Seifer when he'd used the spell. "Fuck," Seifer said. "We're never going to get out of here. I'm surprised you even helped me."

"I'm not going to leave you here to die," Squall said. "No matter how much I hate you."

Squall groped around in the half darkness, looking for their gunblades. His hand came to rest on an unfamiliar hilt, and he knew that he had found the Hyperion. He picked it up and held it. It was heavier than his own blade. He carried it back to Seifer and went back to his search.

The Lionheart was half-buried under a pile of rocks, and Squall sighed thankfully when his fingers closed over the hilt and he lifted it from beneath them. The chain on the end brushed against his wrist and he smiled. Nothing could stop them now. Not even Seifer's injury.

"Come on," Squall said, walking back to a man he'd thought his enemy and pulling him to his feet. Seifer moaned with pain when he tried to put weight on his leg. Squall slid an arm around his shoulders and helped him keep balance on one leg.

"Just leave me here," Seifer said. "You can't get out of here with me limping along like this."

"I'm not leaving you here to die." Squall told him again. Seifer frowned at him and hooked Hyperion to his belt. He wrapped his arm around Squall's waist and grabbed a fistful of the remaining fabric of Squall's shirt. Slowly they made their way in the only direction they could go.

~`~

"Okay, you know what? If you don't get over here and help me I'm going to shove that long ass sword up your ass!"

Cloud was shaking with rage. Sephiroth was possibly the most useless person he'd ever come across in his life. He just sat there on the floor, a dazed look on his pale, pale face, silvery-white hair falling around his shoulders. Cloud wanted to scream, but he knew from experience that it was futile.

"Sephiroth," Cloud said, switching to a wheedling tone. He probably hadn't talked so much in his life as he had to Sephiroth in the last hour. "Would you please get up and help me move this so we can get out of here? I don't know what happened to put us here, but I am very much disliking it and I need your help."

"The explosion," Sephiroth said, lifting his head. It unnerved Cloud to see those aqua eyes burning in the semi-darkness of the cavern. "Someone sent us to this place."

"Words don't move rocks." Cloud said. Sephiroth stood, and Cloud frowned. It seemed unfair that his archenemy was so much taller than he was. It almost made him feel inadequate. If he hadn't had his Buster sword on his back, he would have. Especially with Sephiroth towering over him, the hilt of the Masamune rising above his head. Cloud felt a pang of fear.

"And you think our hands will?" Sephiroth asked.

"Don't know until we try," Cloud said, hoping that the silver-haired man wouldn't just sit back upon the floor.

"Very well," Sephiroth said, and he moved silently to Cloud's side, putting his hands upon the boulder that blocked their only escape route. Cloud had shifted it slightly already, revealing that light shone on the other side.

Working together, Sephiroth and Cloud leaned their respective weights into the massive rock. It only shifted a few inches, but enough to reveal the daylight of the other side, and a field of grass surrounded by high, sheer cliffs.

"Now what?" Cloud asked. Sephiroth almost smiled.

"Do you have your materia?" he asked.

Cloud did smile as he lifted the glowing red orbs. "Do you prefer Bahamut Zero or Knights of the Round?" he asked.

This time, Sephiroth really did smile.


	2. Of Friends and Brothers

****

Foreword & Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns Final Fantasy. All of them. All the characters and places and what have you are not mine. I am merely an avid player of video games, who was struck with the fancy to write. Possible spoilers. I just wanted to be able to play with the characters. Tidus and Squall begged me to make them a couple. Seriously. Later though. Oh yeah, and um, pretend that Aeris never died, in FFVII, okay? I loved her, and well, my fic, she's alive. Enjoy.

Shadows

2. Of Friends, and Brothers

Hands pushed at Tidus's body, shaking him into consciousness. He opened his eyes and looked up, expecting to see Yuna. Instead, he saw green Al Bhed eyes blinking at him.

"Where are we?" Rikku asked, reaching up and trying to push her hair out of her face. In the half-light, Tidus could see that it was almost brown with ash and dirt. He wondered absently what he looked like.

"Huh?" he asked. Nothing quite registered yet. Then he remembered. The heat, the bright light of the explosion. His fingers slipping from Yuna's as the Summoner and her guardians were sent flying. He groaned. "What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know!" Rikku said, her voice almost a whine. He heard the soft clink of her claws hitting the ground as her arms dropped to her side. "Something happened and when I woke up I was here!"

"Where is here?" Tidus asked. Something on his scalp tickled, but he was too tired to lift his arm to see what it was. He hoped it wasn't some sort of bug.

"It's a cave, or something, you know?" Rikku said. Tidus decided that then was the time to sit up. He pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around.

"Oh... my head..." he moaned. Moving had made the pain he had not been feeling connect with his body. Tears sprang to his eyes. He could hear voices, and he hoped that they were real, and not just a figment of the head injury that he seemed to have.

Rikku stood up. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her legs bruised, cut and bleeding. Tidus thought that the dirt on her face might be streaked by tears. She reached down a hand, offering to help Tidus to his feet. The voices grew louder, then stopped abruptly.

"Did you hear that?" Rikku asked, her eyes wide.

"Yeah," Tidus said. He wavered on his feet. Rikku steadied him, careful not to ut him with her claws. He wondered if she wore the weapon out of habit, or because she had seen something and was ready to defend them.

"We have to find a way out of here, you know?" she said. Tidus nodded, and rubbed the back of his head, scratching at the itch there. He winced in pain and pulled his hand away, looking at his blood covered fingers. Great.

When they'd set out, they hadn't been all too prepared. They hadn't expected to have to fight, and if they had perceived some random battle, they never would have counted on the explosion. Tidus wished that he knew what had really happened, and that he knew where Yuna and Kimahri and Auron were. Auron most of all. He would have known what do with this situation.

Rikku started walking into the darkness, then came back to him.

"There's a wall that way," She said. "And water to our right. I swam down into it while you were still unconscious. It ends in a wall."

"So to the left or straight ahead?" Tidus asked.

"Straight ahead." Rikku replied, a look of fear coming across her dirty face. "I think I heard growling that way, you know?"

Tidus nodded. "Straight ahead then," he said, and started walking. Rikku leaned down and picked up his sword from the ashes and dirt of the floor.

"Hey Tidus, don't you..." She began, but stopped. She realized that no, he wouldn't. Not without Yuna there. She sighed.

She hoped that it wasn't a long walk.

~`~

"I give up," Zidane said, throwing himself back onto the floor of the cave. Mikoto swished her tail against the floor but said nothing, as she often did.

"We're not ever going to find a way out of here," Zidane continued. "And I was supposed to meet Garnet…"

"You just have to find a way to open it." Mikoto said. Zidane lifted his head slightly. "Maybe if we called out to the people on the other side."

"Mikoto, there aren't people on the other side. What are you talking about?" Zidane asked.

"Be silent and listen, my brother," she replied. Zidane frowned and concentrated on listening, but the only thing he could hear was their breathing, and the occasional sound of Mikoto's tail against the rock floor.

"I don't hear anything," Zidane said, getting to his feet and dusting off his pants.

"Then listen."

Zidane sighed. There was no one there. They were trapped inside this cave until they died, unless his sister decided to get up and actually help him. He paused and listened.

"Okay, I listened, and I didn't—" He froze. He did hear voices.

"Call to them," Mikoto commanded.

"Why don't you…" Zidane began, but yelled anyway. And kept yelling.

The voices came toward them, and the rock wall ahead of them slowly moved away, flooding the room with light. Zidane covered his eyes, while at the same time reaching out with his tail for his knives.


	3. New Friends and Old Enemies

****

Foreword & Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns Final Fantasy. All of them. All the characters and places and what have you are not mine. I am merely an avid player of video games, who was struck with the fancy to write. Possible spoilers. I just wanted to be able to play with the characters. Tidus and Squall begged me to make them a couple. Seriously. Later though. Oh yeah, and um, pretend that Aeris never died, in FFVII, okay? I loved her, and well, my fic, she's alive. Enjoy.

Shadows

3. New Friends and Old Enemies

"Of all the places you could have opened up, you had to open the one with the monsters!" Cloud screamed, looking into the cave and lifting his sword. Sephiroth suddenly became interested in his fingernails. He didn't really care to fight to weaklings such as the monkey-people within the cavern.

"We don't want to hurt you!" The monkey-boy cried, dropping his knives. "We just wanted to get out of here, and we thank you!"

"At least they're intelligent," Sephiroth said. Cloud didn't drop his sword. "That one kind of reminds me of you."

Cloud turned around. "Okay, what the hell?" he asked. "I look better than that monkey!"

"I'm not a monkey!" the not-monkey protested. "I'm a Genome! And I have a name, and so does my sister!"

"I'm not in this," the female genome said quietly. "If they want to kill you, I'll just… watch, thank you."

"What?" the not-monkey asked, his eyes widening. "They aren't going to kill me! I saved the world!"

"So did I, but you don't see me bragging," Cloud said. Not-monkey frowned.

"I don't remember you being there." He said.

"And I don't remember you being there." Cloud responded.

"He wasn't there," Sephiroth said. "I'd remember him."

"I suppose you think you saved the world too?" the not-monkey asked skeptically.

"I almost destroyed it." Sephiroth said, his eyes lighting brighter.

"But Kuja… you aren't Kuja." The Genome girl said.

"I think that explosion did more than banish us to caves," Sephiroth said.

"I think so," Cloud agreed. Agreed. But he didn't lower his sword. "Your name?" he asked the not-monkey.

"Zidane Tribal, of Tantalus," the not-monkey said. "And she's Mikoto, my sister… sort of."

"I'm Cloud. My last name isn't really important, nor is what I do." Cloud said, lowering his sword slightly.

"I am Sephiroth," said Sephiroth, but he offered no more information than that.

"Great, now that we all know each other, can we please go out into the sun?" Zidane asked. Cloud and Sephiroth stepped aside.

"You first," Cloud said.

~`~

Seifer lay in the grass on his back, the sunlight on his face, arms at his sides. Trying not to scream every time Squall tried to do something to his leg. The younger man had moved out of foot-kicking range after the first few attempts.

Even though he had healed the gash on his head—and he was regretting that last cure in a major way—the blood still matted down his hair. A large portion of Seifer's coat had been burned away in the explosion, and the wind blowing through the holes in Squall's shirt was starting to get on the SeeD cadet's nerves.

They had both been trained to deal with large amounts of pain. Squall had been beaten for information during the second Sorceress War. Seifer had simply been beaten. Matron had sent a huge icicle through Squall's chest. And okay, Seifer had been beaten senseless more than once. But those were things easily healed with simple potions and Cures. Neither of them had ever had the experience of being in constant pain and being able to do nothing about it.

Finally Squall gave up and stretched out on the grass next to Seifer, and Squall tucked his arms behind his head.

"Now what?" he asked.

"I don't know," Seifer said. They stared up into the sky, hoping that an airship, or something would fly overhead and see them, and rescue them. It didn't seem to be happening.

"At least we got to open area, you know," came a voice. Seifer turned his head and looked at Squall. Squall smirked.

"Raijin's relatives?" he asked. "Ya know?"

Seifer smacked him. "That's not funny. Raijin's my friend."

"You don't have any friends," Squall snarked.

"Neither do you," Seifer shot back. "Now get up and see if whoever that is can help us."

Squall sat up to see a blond boy and girl walking across the open field from the caves where he and Seifer had come from. The girl wore an unfamiliar weapon on her hands, a sort of claw, and she carried a sword. The boy seemed to be unarmed, but the sword the girl carried must have belonged to the boy. It looked similar to the gunblades that lay between himself and Seifer.

"Tidus!" The girl cried. "More people!" She ran toward Seifer and Squall. The boy, Tidus, followed her, albeit unenthusiastically.

Squall nudged Seifer to get him to sit up. Seifer immediately reached out and gripped Hyperion, ready to fight. Squall shook his head slightly at the older man, but kept his own hand close to Lionheart's hilt.

"Um, can you tell us where we are? And how to get back to Spira?" the girl asked them.

"Spira?" Seifer asked. "I've never heard of a place called Spira."

The boy brightened at those words. "Maybe they're from Zanarkand too!" he said to the girl. The girl smiled at him, seeming to humor him.

"I've never heard of Zanarkand either," Seifer said, his tongue tripping over the unfamiliar name. "We're from Balamb. The garden there. He's a SeeD and I'm a trainee."

"Okay, that's almost as weird as when you were saying that you were the star player for the Abes," the girl said.

"I was the star player for the Abes," the boy said. "Well… I thought I was. Before I found out about the dream of the Fayth…"

The girl covered her ears. "Not hearing that!" she cried. "You promised not to talk about it."

The boy sighed. "Sure," he said.

"So um, who are you guys?" the girl asked.

"I'm—" Seifer began, but clamped his mouth shut after an elbow to the ribs from Squall.

"You're hurt!" the girl cried, noticing Seifer's leg for the first time. She knelt next to him. "I can fix it if you want."

"Please," Seifer said. He wasn't above begging for this. He was quickly discovering he disliked pain immensely.

"I'm Rikku," the girl told him as she reached into a pouch that she wore around her waist. "And this is an Al Bhed potion. It won't hurt at all."

"No cure spell?" Seifer asked.

"Maybe if Yunie were here, but I don't know any, and neither does he." She said, gesturing to the boy. "He's Tidus."

"I'm Seifer," Seifer said. The pain disappeared abruptly. "Oh. I love you," he told Rikku.

"Would you have said that if I had used the Cure on you instead of me?" Squall asked.

"Uh, no," Seifer said. "I'd have tried to kill you, I'm sure. But now I'm more or less in debt, so that will have to wait until later."

"I'll kick your ass again," Squall threatened.

"I'll give you a scar again," Seifer retorted. Squall grinned and pressed his thumb between Seifer's eyes.

"I got you back for that though," he said.

"Tenfold." Seifer stood up and reached down a hand, offering to pull Squall to his feet. Squall stood without Seifer's help.

"Squall," he said, extending his hand to Tidus. Tidus smiled brightly.

"So, do you have a clue where we are?" Seifer asked when everyone was through shaking hands.

"Not in the slightest," Tidus said. He reached out and took his sword from Rikku. This seemed to make the girl very happy.

"So um, maybe we should ask the silver haired dude or the monkey people, you know?" Rikku said. Seifer and Squall turned their heads sharply to look in the direction Rikku was facing.

It was definitely turning out to be a long day.


	4. Assessments

****

Foreword & Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns Final Fantasy. All of them. All the characters and places and what have you are not mine. I am merely an avid player of video games, who was struck with the fancy to write. Possible spoilers. I just wanted to be able to play with the characters. Tidus and Squall begged me to make them a couple. Seriously. Later though. Oh yeah, and um, pretend that Aeris never died, in FFVII, okay? I loved her, and well, my fic, she's alive. Enjoy.

Shadows

4. Assesments

"So, um, who wants to go over and talk to them first?" Zidane asked, looking at Mikoto, then to Cloud and Sephiroth.

"Don't look to me," Mikoto said, moving away from him.

"Weaklings," Sephiroth said. He started walking toward the four young people standing across the open field from them.

The girl noticed him first, and let out a shriek, tugging on the blond boy's arm. He also turned, drawing the attention of those that they stood with.

"He's got a really big sword, you know?" the girl said, dropping into some sort of weird attack stance, huge claws on her fists. Sephiroth fought the urge to laugh.

"Rikku!" the blond boy whose arm she had grabbed cried. "He'll crush you!"

"I'm not going to hurt any of you," Sephiroth called. "I can if you really want me to, but for now, I'll refrain. I just want you to tell me how to get away from this place."

"If we knew," the other blond man said, "do you think that we'd still be here?"

"Do not be insolent, weakling," Sephiroth said. "I could incinerate you with a flick of my wrist."

"I'm so sure," the other shot back said.

Sephiroth drew his sword. "That is an improper way to speak to a Soldier First Class and the sole remaining Cetra."

"He's not Cetra," Cloud whispered to Zidane and Mikoto. "Aeris was the only remaining Cetra, and he tried to kill her."

"I heard that, you spiky headed freak," Sephiroth said.

"You need to stop spending time with Barrett," Cloud said. Sephiroth cast an odd glare at him before turning back to the group that stood before him.

"What the heck's a Cetra?" the blond boy asked, pushing hair out of his eyes. Sephiroth scanned the group coolly. The blond boy, and the cute little blond girl weren't threatening. The shortish brunet was battle scarred and gripped a large blade that reminded him sharply of Cloud's own, a blade he'd felt slice his skin more than once. The taller, heavier blond that stood behind the sole dark head in the group was similarly scarred. He almost intimidated Sephiroth.

But not quite.

"A race of people. Another name for the Ancients." Sephiroth explained.

"The Ancients?" the big blond asked. "That another name for the people who lived during the Sorceress War?"

"The what?" Sephiroth and the blond boy and girl asked. The brunet sighed.

"Look," he said, "get your friends over here and we're all going to talk about this. It's becoming painfully obvious that something is seriously wrong here. We need to figure out what it is so that we can undo it and go home—or at least get out of here."

The big blond looked at his friend and grinned. "I think that's the most words I've ever heard you say at a time, Puberty boy. We'll make a man of you yet."

Sephiroth laughed when the brunet flipped the blond the bird.

~`~

"Now that we all at least know each other's names," Squall said, standing and pacing back and forth, "we can get to business."

"Who died and made you master?" Seifer shot out. Squall fixed cold gray eyes directly upon his childhood enemy.

"No one died." Squall said, his voice surprisingly sugary. "Cid just decided it should be that way. I'm so sorry that you couldn't past the field exam. Maybe then you could be leader."

Seifer jumped to his feet. Rikku moved out of the way as the big blond advanced on the SeeD commander. He collared Squall and lifted him off his feet. Squall's head tipped back and he actually laughed at Seifer.

"Are you going to hurt me now Seifer?" Squall asked. "I rather like that, if you're thinking of doing it."

Seifer gave Squall a look of disgust and let go of his shirt. The brunet fell, and sprawled on the ground, his legs spread and his hair across his face. He tossed his hair out of his face and smiled.

"Where was I?" Squall asked. Everyone was staring. Seifer was sulking. He'd noticed that his enemy had become increasingly confident and witty since Squall had been with those who had defeated Ultimecia, and since he'd come out. Seifer frowned. Had Squall just been hitting on him.

"Business?" Tidus suggested. He reminded Seifer of Zell, almost, the way he was enthusiastic. And at the same time, he morphed from a total enthusiast to someone who has seen everything.

"Business. So obviously we have to find a way out of here. Question is, where is here? How did we get here?" Squall asked.

"The explosion," Mikoto said simply. She seemed to be a girl of few words. "We all passed out when the explosion occurred. My theory is that it translocated us to the caves here."

"Well, yeah, but what caused the explosion?" Rikku asked. She seemed a little wary of the genome girl.

"Any number of things." Mikoto said. A simple gesture of her hand told them that she didn't know.

"It is a sorceress."

The voice came from behind them, and they all turned. Cloud cried out and jumped ot his feet.

"Aeris!" he cried.


	5. Lady Aeris

****

Foreword & Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns Final Fantasy. All of them. All the characters and places and what have you are not mine. I am merely an avid player of video games, who was struck with the fancy to write. Possible spoilers. I just wanted to be able to play with the characters. Tidus and Squall begged me to make them a couple. Seriously. Later though. Oh yeah, and um, pretend that Aeris never died, in FFVII, okay? I loved her, and well, my fic, she's alive. Enjoy.

Shadows

5. Lady Aeris

"Aeris!" Cloud cried. Sephiroth took to looking absolutely dumbstruck.

"Yes," the little brunette girl said, smiling softly. She held a basket of flowers in her hands. "It has been a long time, Cloud," she said. She inclined her head to the silver haired man who was staring at her with incredulity. "Sephiroth."

"I killed you," Sephiroth said, his aqua eyes darkening to green. Cloud noted that they were a similar color to Aeris's.

"You destroyed my body on that plane," Aeris said simply. "But you did not kill me."

"You're unsent?" Tidus asked warily.

"No," Aeris said, "not unsent in the sense that you are thinking. I did move on from my Terra."

"Are we on the Farplane then?" Tidus asked. Aeris stepped forward slightly and caressed his cheek.

"No Tidus, son of Jecht. You are not on the Farplane." Aeris said. She turned back to Cloud. "Everyone has been awaiting the arrival of the heroes," she said.

"The heroes?" Cloud asked. His blue eyes locked on Aeris's face.

"The heroes of many universes, Cloud. They've been brought here to save this universe." Aeris explained.

"So you're saying there is more than one universe?" Rikku asked. She stared in awe at the small girl who stood talking to them. To Rikku, it seemed that she was almost like Yuna, and almost like a Fayth.

"Many," Aeris said. "You've all been brought here to save this universe. We depend on you."

"That seems to happen a lot," Squall muttered under his breath.

"Some of us aren't exactly heroes," Seifer put in, casting a glance at Sephiroth, who was kneeling on the ground before Aeris, a strange look on his face.

"Maybe the people of your universe do not see it like that," Aeris said. "But you have been brought here to serve a purpose."

"How can we help you if we're trapped within these cliffs?" Zidane asked, speaking for the first time since he'd been introduced to the others.

"I will guide you on this part of your journey. Then you must listen to what people to say to find your way." Aeris turned, the white robe that she wore swirling around her ankles. "Follow me."

"Explain to us where we are," Mikoto said. "Please?"

"As I said, this is an alternate universe." Aeris said. "Things are not exactly the same here as they were at home, mind you. You will meet people you know, like myself. But not all will know who you are," she looked directly at Squall. "Say if you, for example, met Rinoa Heartilly in this universe. She would not be the Rinoa that you knew where you came from."

"We understand that," Seifer said, frustrated. "How do we get home? What are we supposed to do here?"

"You will return home the same way you came," Aeris said. "Once your task is complete."

"What is our task, Lady Aeris," Sephiroth said, raising his head to look at her.

"You are perceptive, Sephiroth," Aeris said. "I am nobility here."

"Our task, Lady," Seifer said.

"You will defeat the Shadows," she told them simply.

~`~

"So what are the shadows?" Rikku asked as they hiked up the slender path cut into the cliff. She walked close to Aeris, feeling safe with the other girl.

"They are monsters of little substance," Aeris said. "They arrived a short few years ago, and they are very dangerous."

"What do you mean, very dangerous? What if we can't handle it, you know?"

"Rikku, daughter of Cid, we have every faith that you and the other heroes can perform the task ahead of you."

"How can you be so sure?" Rikku asked, her voice whining.

"I just am," Aeris said. "If I were not, I would have nothing."

"A religious people?" Rikku asked. "We defied a whole religion, and a God, Tidus and I and our friends. I don't want to do it again."

"Somehow, Rikku, I think this will be far, far different." Aeris said.

"How?"

"This time you're not facing a God," Aeris said simply.

"Then what are we facing?"

"A demon."


	6. First Encounter

****

Foreword & Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns Final Fantasy. All of them. All the characters and places and what have you are not mine. I am merely an avid player of video games, who was struck with the fancy to write. Possible spoilers. I just wanted to be able to play with the characters. Tidus and Squall begged me to make them a couple. Seriously. Later though. Oh yeah, and um, pretend that Aeris never died, in FFVII, okay? I loved her, and well, my fic, she's alive. Enjoy.

Shadows

6. First Encounters

They descended without warning.

They slid over the sides of the cliffs, crawling down toward the group walking along the ever-widening road away from the ravine in which they had awoken. They attacked silently, grabbing on to Rikku first, where she walked at the head of the line alongside Aeris. Tendrils of pure shadow wrapped around the blonde Al Bhed before she had a chance to scream.

Aeris stopped abruptly, calling to the others. She swung her staff at the thing that had twined itself about the other girl, but to no avail. The thing moved and shifted to avoid her physical attacks. Rikku screamed.

"Keep your mouth shut," Aeris cried. "Don't let it slip inside or you will be lost!"

More came up from behind, latching onto Zidane's tail. He wheeled and swiped at it with his daggers, making the thing hiss and scream with pain. It seemed there was more than one kind of Shadow. The thing let go and slinked back into the small group that was moving up behind them. More slid over the tops of the cliffs.

"Some are immune to magic, and others are not!" Aeris cried as the rest of the group rushed into battle. She was fumbling for a materia, a spell, anything.

"Right," Zidane called, advancing toward the group, his body low to the ground in his fighting stance. He shoved Mikoto back toward the center, away from the Shadows forming ranks behind them. The genome girl backed away, with no way to protect herself.

Rikku's head slumped against her chest. The Shadow was draining her life away.

And then there was a loud popping sound, and a fire flashed into existence, exploding on the small path and scorching the rocks around it. The Shadow screamed, a hoarse, unearthly sound. Aeris turned to look at the group behind him, and saw Seifer and Squall standing back to back, gunblades in hand, Pitching small objects like baseballs into the crowd of Shadows oozing over the sides of the cliffs. Ice and fire spells lit up the ravine, and water rained down on them.

Behind them, in the middle of the pack of magic immune Shadows, Zidane fought, spinning and slashing, looking like he were performing some strange and ancient dance, the light from the high-level fire spells catching on his daggers and casting bright reflections on the walls around him. But he was overwhelmed.

Enter Cloud and Sephiroth. Sephiroth drew the Masamune with a hiss of steel as he walked, a slow, determined pace. He swung the great weapon, slicing open many of the demons and spilling blue fluids onto the ground. Cloud walked behind him, cutting apart any Shadow that dared to twitch as it lay on the ground.

Tidus rushed to Rikku and lifted her gently off the ground. Aeris knelt next to them. Rikku has sooty smudges across her face, mingling with the tear-streaked dirt that had already been there. The spray from the splashing water spells washed away parts of it, making her look even dirtier. Aeris placed her hands on the unconscious girl's head and a soft light came from them. Rikku's eyes opened.

"What was that?" She asked, and Tidus hugged her. "Did that explosion take us home?"

"Look," Tidus said pointing. Rikku looked at the amazing spectacle of the five fighters behind them on the trail. She smiled.

"Wow," she said.

With a howl, the Shadows stopped spilling over the cliffs into Seifer and Squall's amazing light show. The bodies of the fallen began to melt and disintegrate around the ankles of the three warriors in the back.

"Sick," Cloud said, stepping away from the puddle that edged toward his boots.

The Shadows there, too, began to withdraw—those that still lived. Sephiroth lifted his long coat away from he forming pool with a look of disgust. Zidane waded out of the mass of dead Shadows around him and back to the group. His sister held out a piece of cloth and he proceeded to wipe the blue blood of the Shadows from his daggers before re-sheathing them. He offered it to Sephiroth and Cloud.

"What were those?" Seifer asked as he wiped the water from their spells off of his face. He looked exceptionally handsome dripping water and sweat.

"Those were the Shadows," Aeris said.

"Those were the demons that we have to fight?" Cloud asked. "Not so difficult, if you ask me."

"Those were the underlings. They are very weak. You were not brought here to fight the weak ones. You were brought to fight the Shadow Masters."

"I can't wait," Squall muttered, swiping his hands through his hair and slicking it back.

Aeris glared at him. "The Shadow Masters will take the form of your worst nightmares. Many have faced them, and none have returned—unless you count the pieces the Masters send us as warnings."

"And you want US to face them?" Rikku asked. "That's not fair, you know?"

"We have no other choice." Aeris said. "We thought you worthy of this task."

"You speak like a prophet," Mikoto said. "But not all of us are fighters, and not all of us are heroes."

"No?" Aeris asked.

"I have never fought for anything." Mikoto said.

"You saved your brothers from the bottom of the Iifa Tree," Aeris said. "You have done something."

"No, Kuja still died."

"But Zidane lives." Aeris said. "Do not worry, Genome Mikoto. You will learn your task, and you will learn to fight the way you were meant to."

Mikoto looked at her for a moment before nodding.


End file.
